Google has announced a $1bn Pacific Connect initiative to provide two new subsea cables between Japan and the US.
The two submarine cables, named Proa and Taihei, will improve the reliability and resilience of digital connectivity between the U.S., Japan, and multiple Pacific Island countries and territories.
Google has revealed the development in a blog post.
NEC’s Proa data cable will connect Japan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam and is named after the traditional sailing canoes of the Marianas. To further increase reliability in the region, the NEC cable system Taiwan-Philippines-U.S. (known as TPU) will be extended to the CNMI. As the CNMI’s first international subsea cables, Proa and TPU will together establish a new route between the continental U.S. and Shima, Japan.
Taihei, the Japanese word for both “peace” and “Pacific Ocean,” is the second NEC cable that Google will install. It will connect Japan to Hawaii.
Additionally, Tabua data cable will be extended to Hawaii, building on the plans announced last year to run the cable from the continental U.S. to Fiji and Australia. Once complete, the Taihei and Tabua systems will create a diverse path between the continental U.S. to Takahagi, Japan.
